A lot has been made, unfairly, of British athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah missing out on the gold medals they were predicted to win at the World Athletics Championships - not to mention Usain Bolt's disqualification in the 100 metres - but surely the most disappointing performance of all has been that of Channel 4 broadcasting the games for the first time.
Although they appear not to be the target audience, any sports fans tuning in will have had nothing but sympathy for sporting legend Michael Johnson, a brilliant athletics pundit poached, like the broadcast rights, from the BBC. Johnson has had to witness at close quarters the uncomfortable spectacle of 'The Bloke Off The Gadget Show' and 'Doesn't He Normally Introduce Hollyoaks On T4' showing there is a lot more to presenting live sport than meets the eye.
Johnson, a man who knows first hand the pain of being the infallible member of a flawed relay team, could have been forgiven thoughts of 'here we go again' as he witnessed his co-presenters contrive the broadcasting equivalent of fumbling the relay baton... before kicking it into the water jump and spearing it with a javelin for good measure.
Many viewers and 'proper' sports presenters were quick to question, then criticise Channel 4 - to the point there has now been an urgent reshuffling of presenters. Channel 4 clearly had the best intentions of opening up athletics to a younger audience, albeit at the risk of insulting existing fans. However, even the least discerning teens can't have enjoyed watching some of the in-studio awkwardness (watch the below clips all the way through and then watch it again focussing only on Johnson's 'dropped-baton' look of quiet resignation every time The Gadget Show's Ortis Deley fumbles his handovers:
Ortis Deley presenting masterclass by yidioh
I completely agree the coverage is terrible and the adverts every 10 mins is driving me insane!
Thank god BBC have the Olympics!
Posted by: Caroljs | Aug 31, 2011 at 21:08
The man is incompetent. He kept getting the names of the two reporters wrong - if one of them was me I'm afraid Channel 4 would be in an even bigger mess than it is now.
Posted by: Lee | Sep 01, 2011 at 08:49
Really terrible coverage. Not just the awkward presenting but the lack of information in the commentary. The highlights show failed to show the best bits. Ruined a usually really exciting competition. Bring back the BBC please !!!!!
Posted by: Laura | Sep 04, 2011 at 13:25
In my opinion I think that the coverage was terrible, and Michael Johnson kept on getting the announcers names wrong. But I still think Michael Johnson still deserves a little bit of sympathy after everything he has done in the Olympics. And it is just not right that people could criticise Channel 4 to the point that they had to change the presenters.
Posted by: chris | Sep 22, 2011 at 14:09